A little while ago, the philosopher Roger Scruton was talking on radio about the decline of dance in contemporary society. Today’s men and women, he lamented, had no respect for the discipline of choreography. At clubs and halls, they turned dance floors into mosh pits; they valued spontaneity rather than tradition, self-expression over technique.

Is that true? There’s no lack of dance on television or at the cinema these days: part makeover dramas, part social engineering experiments, the likes of Strictly Come Dancing or Mad Hot Ballroom track, both comically and impressively, the efforts of amateurs and youngsters to follow in the footsteps of their tutors.

Dancing Dreams, directed by Anne Linsel and Rainer Hoffmann, is just one such experiment. Shot over 10 months, it shows 40 young kids, taken from high schools in the German city of Wuppertal, as they learn to perform Kontakthof (“Contact Zone”), Pina Bausch’s celebrated piece exploring the nature of human encounters.

Although Bausch, to whom Wim Wenders recently paid tribute in Pina, is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in post-war dance theatre, not all the youngsters have heard of her. One of them was inspired to take part after watching Billy Elliot. A girl whose grandfather was killed in the Bosnian war tries to channel her anger into her steps.

The dancers are uniformly polite and likable. One admits he doesn’t understand the meaning of the movements he’s performing. Others contrast the subtlety of the gestures with the aggressive masculinity of hip hop on which they’ve been weaned, and admit they’re surprised by the tenderness with which they’re learning to touch women.

Most of the rehearsals are led by dancers Jo-Ann Endicott and Benedicte Billet. Bausch, whose final interview before her death in June 2009 is included here, was a supervisor. She radiates an amazing presence.

She sits calmly, a cigarette between her fingers, not so much studying as engaging with the youngsters before her. She’s thoughtful, respectful, always prodding them to find a mid-point between spontaneity and technique. The film may be a footnote to her extraordinary career, but it’s no less fascinating for that.